So, NWN is pretty old now. These days I've been trying to look for graphical overrides that will help give a new look to things to refresh the game a little. Here's a few I found and currently use, and I would like to see what else people find, if anything. All of these work with NWN online(including Avlis) and none of them affect gameplay in any way.

Undead Redux - Gives most of the skeletal undead better textures and models. I love it.

Lord of Worms Creature Override Pack - Includes various undead, goblin, ogre, ettin, earth elemental, and orc overrides. The undead differ slightly from above so use personal preference is which to override with. Earth Elemental is bugged still so don't use that model or texture.

NEW D&D Classic Elementals - I personally like this one but it also makes the models of some of the elementals bigger than what they originally were visually. In my experience this hasn't really affected gameplay but if you are iffy about that don't get this. Doesn't override the elder models but if you want it to make a copy of the ".mdl" files included and add on "eld" to the end of the ".mdl file names.

Somewhat NEW Aenea Transparent GUI Overhaul/Upgrade - I don't like every aspect of this overhaul but the transparent GUI and colored HP bars can really make a difference in NWN. Try to pick and choose what you like here.

NEW Weapons Redux: Spears Maybe not many spear users around but if you want them to look different here you go.

NEW Lord of Worms - Werewolves and Fire Giants Alright this one is a bit more complicated if you want to use it for an override. It is a fire giant and werewolf replacer however. First, they replace the female fire giants with an alternate male model so you do not want to do that. For the fire giant all you want to use from the mdls is c_gntfire.mdl for the male fire giant. For the werewolves you'll have to outright rename models to get the one you want which I did not mess with at this time. I recommend it for the new fire giant though. You also need to export the files from the hak. You can use nwhak for this.

NEW Creature Override Compilation - Honestly only recommending this one for the trolls. Much of the content in it is already covered above or in Avlis' haks as seperate models. You'll find the trolls in Creature_I.7z. Not responsible for the results of trying to use any other overrides included.

NEW Bioware Rural Trees Override - Compatible with other tile overrides this changes many of the skimpy default Bioware trees to be a bit more robust. There is also a override for the default placeable trees included to give them the same effect. Use bioware_rural_trees.zip, bioware_city_trees.zip, placeables_addon.zip, and enhanced_trees_placeables.zip.

maxinion wrote:Hi everyone,

I found a new one of these that is absolutely stunning. Its effects on the Rural tileset are jaw-dropping, and others change beautifully as well.

Effectively, this changes a looot of the standard NWN tiles. Things are much, much much prettier, and there are some new VFX (lens flares up the wazoo, for instance). For Windows users, there's even a little helper script that lets you turn off changes you don't like. (No such luck for linux/mac, unless you can find a way to run .bat). I heartily recommend it.

A word of warning though: when I say change tiles, I mean it. There are... lots more trees in my Mikona now. They're beautiful! But they weren't there before. So... just be careful with what you're referencing, because other people may not see it. (Of course, that wouldn't be a problem if everyone installed this, so get cracking!)

Disclaimer: Overriding isn't terribly complicated but it can get to be trial and error if there's certain models and textures you don't like with any of these, so keep track of what you put in there. Otherwise everything above just gets dropped into NWN's override folder. Bugs from improper or bad overrides can cause crashes and graphic glitches so be sure of what you are putting in and what you are doing before you do it.

Last edited by Sarmanos on Mon Dec 24, 2012 4:26 pm, edited 10 times in total.

Vetinari: I have noted before that you have a definite anti-authoritarian streak, Commander.Vimes: Sir?Vetinari: You seem to have retained this even though you are Authority.Vimes: Sir?Vetinari: That's practically Zen.

The only thing I don't care for about it, is the custom screen they added at startup, advertising their world, but always just click fast past all those anyway.

Gorgon had a list of stuff to remove/change to eliminate the unwanted extras, might want to do a search or ping him about it.

New skies, I'll go for that I think.

FletcherWiki*Stepping out of a portal*Nawen Amakiir: there he is.. *smirks* someone had to make an entranceFletcher Millstone: MILLSTONE! *arms held high*Lilliana Be'letane: You're the worst, Fletcher.

The gui override and icon ones (heavily edited) are a bunch of it for me. I don't use much else besides the old movements, hands, bowstrings and maybe a few others I forgot. I just keep backups of different versions instead of removing files every time. Like a version with the really old movement/no stealth crash fix one.

Can you tell I detest the Bioware walk and run animations HotU added?

Oh, I guess the fading forest, extra CEP hands and dynamic creature stuff counts, but those are all hak edits.

"God not only plays dice, he throws them in the corner where you can't see them."-- Stephen William Hawking (b. 1942) --

A word of warning though. While the original version of these animations fixed the stealth crash bug, these are redone ones that don't. In fact I have a suspicion they cause it now. I could be wrong, but I think Bioware fixed that problem, and these are made from models before that fix. If I'm going somewhere that has lots of things attacking from stealth, I swap it to the really old version that makes new cloaks look stiff as a board, but removing it might help as well.

"God not only plays dice, he throws them in the corner where you can't see them."-- Stephen William Hawking (b. 1942) --

Sometimes I'll take an improved atmosphere for an area over the graphics quality so I had no problem with it personally.

Vetinari: I have noted before that you have a definite anti-authoritarian streak, Commander.Vimes: Sir?Vetinari: You seem to have retained this even though you are Authority.Vimes: Sir?Vetinari: That's practically Zen.

A word of warning though. While the original version of these animations fixed the stealth crash bug, these are redone ones that don't. In fact I have a suspicion they cause it now. I could be wrong, but I think Bioware fixed that problem, and these are made from models before that fix. If I'm going somewhere that has lots of things attacking from stealth, I swap it to the really old version that makes new cloaks look stiff as a board, but removing it might help as well.

Quoting myself here, but it seems many people think the new version of this helps with stealth attack crashes. It doesn't. The old version is here:

By old, I mean it is the stock animations used before HotU came out. They don't get along with the 1.68 cloaks since they make them stiff as a board, but they still fix that bloody bug. I keep a copy of my override folder with those in it for any major event that might cause those kind of crashes.

*Read the instructions. Why the author didn't just change the file to not have the a_ba_casts.mdl in it is beyond me, but you don't want to toss that in with the rest of them.

"God not only plays dice, he throws them in the corner where you can't see them."-- Stephen William Hawking (b. 1942) --

This is not entirely true. Horred has an ancient computer and uses this override, as well as a preview version of the Trav Main hak which has a new version of the Tairis skybox based on this very hak. He can probably comment better on it than me, but he reports no real noticeable difference, and he's using a PCI video card. Yes, PCI, not PCI Express...

A wise man does not dwell on his past. He learns from it, he grows from it, and then moves ahead into his future.

And some wise words from a wise man.

Orleron wrote:You have to excuse Themi. Tact, diplomacy, and softness are not his best traits, but he does not mean anything by his writing. He's a nice guy. You just get used to it after a while because he doesn't seem to learn.

I have those skyboxes in my override on both my new and old machine. Old being built in 2002. There's been no difference in frame rate with the new boxes. Only thing i've noticed is a slight pause towards the end of the load screen as if it was reading out the override directory and applying the skybox. It's so slight it's not even worth worrying about.

Used on a 9700 pro agp card with a 1.4Ghz amd chip.

I find NPC loads during the game play far more annoying that anything the skybox might have caused.

I've played Avlis on older hard drives, and that can slow you down more than anything. If you are using an old system, investing in even a cheap new drive (externals work fine) can make a world of difference.

Mind you, my new 22" wide screen made me fall in love with the game again as well. I just need to keep spare towels handy for all the drool.

*edits* A defrag can also help quite a bit if you never do it.

"God not only plays dice, he throws them in the corner where you can't see them."-- Stephen William Hawking (b. 1942) --